"Insulted" by a "professional musician."

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by talkgtr

I'm that guy that mentioned "that guy". I didn't say I couldn't handle the situation.

I'll have folks ask about my guitars and after talking w/ them for a minute, I never mind putting my guitar in their hands to check out.

Drunks rarely ask, when they do it's usually to sit in on drums.

Originally Posted by talkgtr

I don't disagree w/ the general assessment of the dude's personality but, since I'm professional musician here's my two cents,.... there's always the guy who wants to talk gear on a break. Don't be that guy.

Before you can remember his name, he's telling you about the Les Paul his parents bought him when he was 16, or the D-18 or his current stash of Paul Reed Smiths or his vintage amp collection,.. he's impossible to shake and then half the break is gone.

Since I build my electric guitars and work with a high end boutique amp builder, I have plenty to offer but I'm here to play. Gear is what you work on/talk about when you're not playing,.. I'm nice as I can be, smile and agree if there's ever a pause,..

With all due respect, I think when you find it impossible to shake someone off like that, with the feeling of 'Don't be that guy 'you just may be giving them that very impression, which would more than likely be interpreted as rude.

As you probably well know, this happens to many musicians, pros and amateurs alike. I can't tell you how many times someone came up to me on my break asking me about my guitars, and I'm more than happy to talk with them. Additionally, as I've mentioned before, it's my job as a performer to not try to shake them off, but to give them my time whenever I'm at a performance.

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

For the sake of being courteous, I would like to see an end to the mentioning of professionals by their names in this thread. If you have something negative to say about them, you can all make your point without naming them.

You're bordering very close to slander, as this forum is read by numerous people.

That's why I didn't mention the offending party by name in the OP. Besides, he's one of those guys who is known to take to the local CL and flame anyone that crosses him.

[Jambi]

Originally Posted by SpiderTrap999

I can bet it had nothing to do with guitars . This guy obviously has a dreadful life , and you happened to be in the line of fire at the moment. Reminds me of a neighbor who went spazmaximus few years ago about a tree I trimmed on my property . , later found out , had nothing to do with the tree But ALOT to do with his PERSONAL LIFE .

Spazmaximus is my new go-to word.

[Trevor B.]

Originally Posted by pdidmh1

I wouldn't classify a 1500 dollar guitar as expensive. Not really. Now if it was 15000 dollars that would be different.

My thought exactly. That said, from personal experience I know there are some $1,500.00 guitars that sound great.

[llew]

Originally Posted by Jambi

Spazmaximus is my new go-to word.

Yep...I put that one aside as well!

[roylor4]

Originally Posted by cattzap

I don't know. Looks like he's using a chorus pedal

Nice one

[Pineapple Pete]

Mister Professional has one $1500 guitar?

Big deal. Does his definition of "professional" LITERALLY mean that he eats/pays bills/lives on what he makes, or nothing?

I've played streets with a $50 guitar and had ONLY what people tipped to show for it. I've paid my rent with the money I earned playing and had not one cent else to my name.

I could slay his audience with my $40 guitar (I bought a fixer-upper for $40, then traded it for the one I have now) and my SoundTech PA that I paid $60 for used.

$1500 guitar... I hate to bash other musicians, but that guy is all hat and no cattle. He's pissed because the pay stinks at the gigs he gets.

Poor baby... he wants to be a REAL musician like the big boys.

People like that piss me off... unlike so many others who have the choice to go play for fun or go play for little bread, I have very few work options because of my physical issues. I have a wife, children and a dog to feed. I play wherever I can and gladly/gratefully accept whatever I make.

I'm more than humbled every time I am complimented on my singing, playing and/or writing. I can't believe someone who is privileged to get paid to play and can afford a $1500 guitar would be such a jerk.

/rant.

[Truckjohn]

One guitar for a real, touring pro musician? Really? That's hard to believe....

All the "Real" pro musicians I know and have heard of tend to have equipment a few levels deep... Because it never breaks out on tour you know... Never heard of something weird happening and breaking a guitar...

That's like a mechanic with 1 wrench or a carpenter with 1 hammer...

I would wonder a lot about a supposed "touring professional guitarist" if he showed up with ONE guitar... What happens if you break a string of it falls off the stage and the headstock breaks off.... Or God forbid, the tour bus runs it over... Never heard of that...

[mkitman]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

Oh really? Why don't you print this photo and bring it back to him. I think Jackson Browne would be considered a "professional musician."

And not ONE 12 string in the bunch... (sigh...)

[Jim_G]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

You're bordering very close to slander, as this forum is read by numerous people.

I don't think so, but I'll go XXX out the names right after this. It's not slander if it's true, for one. And besides, I basically said she was complicated. She tends to reflect her audience in short.

[FrankHudson]

Let me agree with the crowd-sense here: the OP's performer in his story was rude. Humans do that sometimes. Usually it's better if they don't.

But let me also say that I can understand it a bit. Not every performer is an extrovert. More than many might guess are deeply introverted. They're not good at small talk. They sometimes focus in on the thing they think they should be doing, and ignore the people around them. Might help them when composing, but that same "ignore distractions" mode can obviously can hurt them elsewhere in their personal and professional life. They may try to fake it and make that important small talk, and then fail so miserably at it that they conclude "what's the use." As an introvert, I understand that. I try not to hurt people and yet fail at that attempt sometimes. Extroverts often don't. They assume the small talk is easy for everyone. I doubt this was the root cause of the performer's actions in the OP's story, but I can't rule it out.

A second cause is something I see all the time, and it's not just musicians. I used to call it the "Joe Friday" syndrome. The demographic here may well remember the long running "Dragnet" series on radio and TV. The show's gimmick throughout its run was just how little the general public understood what it was like to be a cop. It's creator Jack Webb would use his minimal acting style to raise an eyebrow as someone prattled on either about nothing that was germane to his police case. Sometimes he would use the same understatement when some non-cop would tell him how to do his job, other times he'd resort to a curt rejoinder about how the outsider didn't understand. In either case, the audience was supposed to understand and sympathize with Joe Friday. In that show's day I think a good size audience did, after all it had a very long run.

I don't recall exactly if Joe Friday ever ran into someone who thought of themselves as a person akin to Joe Friday, despite not being a cop, despite not living Joe Friday's life. Given the number of episodes it had to have come up, and Jack Webb's/Joe Friday's eyebrow would have had to have gone up at hearing this. Being a musician at anything but the top-paying levels is not an easy gig. So is being a cop. So is being a nurse. So is being an author. So is being a teacher. So is being a soldier. So is being a mother. And so on.

Ironically, a certain percentage of folks in any of these professional roles are going to get their back up when someone suggests they share that particular experience and significantly understands it. The OPs presumably benign question/comment about tone and equipment may have been read by the ornery performer as an overture to just that.

I'm an introvert who enjoys composing and making music at whatever level I can achieve. I own an unreasonable number of guitars. I perform sporadically. But my rent money and the musicians I play with's rent money doesn't rely on my efforts. It's a different life when they do.

I'm not excusing rudeness. Rudeness is what it was. Self-defeating? Quite possibly. Just saying that that sometimes these seemingly trivial interactions we have with others have a richer history than the moment in which they occur.

[Turp]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

Someone on this thread, another professional musician, said that he dislikes when someone comes up to him during a break to talk about gear. He went as far as to say... "Don't be that guy." My goodness. That, along with the musician that treated you so rudely, is simply uncalled for.

My attitude is that from the second my foot touches the inside of that venue, until I get back into my car, I am there for my audience. As long as they're sincere and friendly, it's my obligation as a professional musician and entertainer to return the courtesy, no matter how tired or out of sorts I may be. They've paid money to see me, driven out in the night, and simply want to have a few words. If it weren't for the audience, I would be stacking shelves at Walmart. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but that is simply not what I'm here for. Besides, it's folks like that, that lift my spirits up when the road gets a bit tiring.

There's simply no excuse for being rude to anyone, let alone someone who is genuinely friendly. And it's even worse when a professional musician treats their audience with anything other than courteousness, respect, and kindness.

Owning one or fifty guitars does not make the player. Come to think of it, neither does the playing. It's what's inside the player that counts, and everything else will reflect just that.

Toby-well said. I couldn't agree more. It's a special thing to play music others enjoy and even more if another musician or anyone understands it enough to discuss your music and/or gear.

I'd like to point Professional speaks as much to conduct as it does to pay status.

[segovia123]

Originally Posted by ChrisE

I was at an event with a live band recently, they sounded really good. Acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and an electric guitarist/fiddle player.

During one of the breaks, I saw the acoustic guitarist and said, "You've got a great acoustic tone, are you using anything special?"

He said, "Yeah--I'm using a chorus pedal. That and I'm using an expensive guitar. It's a $1,500 guitar instead of the $300 guitars I used to use. I'm a professional working musician, and professional working musicians only have one guitar, not like all those guys who have a room full of guitars and never play any gigs."

He looks and me and says, "You've probably got five guitars at home, don't you?"

"Well, just four actually..."

"That's what I figured" he added as he walked off.

Nice meeting you, too.

What a knobhead, I bet he is unlucky with the girls. He probably has four cars !

[DupleMeter]

You can tell a lot about someone by the way they treat a person they assume has nothing to offer them.

[llew]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

You can tell a lot about someone by the way they treat a person they assume has nothing to offer them.

Very...very true!